


Stone Blind

by owlmoose



Series: Pieces of Thedas [37]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Flash Fic, Gen, Gen Prompt Bingo, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-10 00:37:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2004153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlmoose/pseuds/owlmoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dwarves aren't supposed to be able to get lost in the Deep Roads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stone Blind

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Gen Prompt Bingo prompt "missing persons". Also inspired by wondering how a dwarf Warden might feel about losing their stone sense after coming to the surface.

Sereda Aeducan stepped out of the tunnel and extinguished her torch. "Well, fuck."

"What's wrong?" Behind her, Nathaniel started to reach for his bow, but Sereda waved him off. She walked over to the pile of tumbled-down columns, which was the same pile of tumbled-down columns they'd already seen three times. She couldn't deny it any longer: they'd been going in circles.

"But how?" She muttered it under her breath, as she kicked at the rubble. The rocks made a satisfying crunch against her silverite-toed boot. "I swear we've been heading south this whole time. Why do we keep ending up back here?"

"The maps must be wrong." Nathaniel knelt down to the stone floor and pulled the scroll out of his pack, unrolling it in front of him. "You see this crossroads? It says to go straight, but isn't that where we found that cave-in? The darkspawn tunnel must come back around to this spot."

Sereda shook her head. "Map or no map, I still should've known. I should have felt it." She crossed her arms, biting her lip to stave off the wave of panic rising in her chest. "I'm a dwarf. Dwarves don't get lost underground."

"Ah." Nathaniel rolled up the map and put it away. "Stone sense, yes? An innate sense of direction."

"Direction and the passage of time, yeah. They say that surfacer dwarves can lose their stone sense, but I always thought that was a myth. You know, an old Shaper's tale, invented to scare us into staying in Orzammar. But now..." She turned to him suddenly. "How long have we been down here, anyway?"

"A week, by my reckoning," he said, and Sereda let out a breath. That seemed right; at least she wasn't operating completely blind. 

"All right." She sat down and leaning back on her hands, and Nathaniel shifted closer to her. "That means it's only been a week, and Varel isn't expecting us back for two. So they aren't sending out the search parties yet, if they even would."

"They would," Nathaniel said. "For you, Varel would."

"I suppose." Sereda drummed her fingers against the packed earth. "Well, if we can't count on my sense of direction to get us out of here, I suppose it's time to start drawing up a new map." She sighed. "At least I'm lost with the best tracker I know."

Nathaniel tapped his heart in acknowledgement. "Thank you. I do my best." He pulled the scroll back out and took a charcoal from his back pocket. "May I write on your map?"

Sereda scowled in its general direction. "It's either that or use it for kindling."

He laughed, a soft snort. "True enough. All right. So if we keep going down this hallway, we reach the cave-in, and the darkspawn tunnel goes this way..." His voice trailed off as he leaned over the map, drawing lines, scribbling and making notes, dark hair falling into his face. She watched him, adding commentary from her memory pointing out the occasional error, but she hesitated each time. What use was a dwarf who couldn't navigate the underground?

"There." Nathaniel held up the map, squinting at it in the dim light. "So if we take the other darkspawn tunnel branch at the crossroads, that ought to get us moving in the right direction." He peered over the map at Sereda. "What do you think?"

"Lead on," Sereda said, scrambling to her feet and hitching her pack up to her shoulder. "You can't get us any more lost than we already are." He took off, and she followed him down the tunnel. If the back of the line was her place now, she would get used to it. She'd adjusted to bigger changes in her time.


End file.
